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Associated Press
People line up outside the building that houses the immigration courts Thursday in Los Angeles. Legitimate asylum-seekers must not be arbitrarily detained, a federal judge ruled Monday.

Tuesday, July 03, 2018 1:00 am

Judge: Stop detaining asylum-seekers

Associated Press

WASHINGTON – A federal judge on Monday determined the U.S. government is violating its own rules regarding the treatment of people seeking asylum.

Judge James Boasberg issued a preliminary injunction ordering the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency to stop what opponents called the arbitrary detention of legitimate asylum-seekers.

The case in question continues, but the injunction opens up yet another legal front in the multidirectional battle being waged by the Trump administration over immigration.

All immigrants seeking asylum must initially pass a “credible fear” screening to determine whether they face a threat of persecution in their home countries. Those who fail that standard are deported immediately.

Previously, those who passed were usually given humanitarian parole while awaiting an immigration hearing, provided they were not considered flight risks or dangers to the public.

Under former President Barack Obama's administration, ICE granted humanitarian parole to more than 90 percent of asylum-seekers.

Lawyers for the ACLU and other groups argued in May that since the start of President Donald Trump's administration, the number of people granted such parole has dropped to almost zero in five key ICE field offices: Detroit; El Paso, Texas; Los Angeles; Newark, New Jersey; and Philadelphia.

Those denied parole have instead been detained; in one case, a former ethics teacher from Haiti has spent more than 18 months in prison.

Boasberg, in a 38-page memorandum opinion, concluded that “the numbers here are irrefutable,” and ordered a case-by-case review of all asylum-seekers awaiting parole. Meanwhile, the lawsuit will continue with a status hearing July 10.

“The denial letters that they were issuing were just boiler-plate – deny deny deny,” said Hardy Vieux, legal director for Human Rights First.

“This is the court saying, 'I've seen enough to tell (the government) to stop what you're doing, and we'll talk later.'”